Saturday, February 17. 2018

In 1621 Myles Standish was appointed as the first commander of Plymouth colony. In 1801 the US House of Representatives broke an electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, electing Jefferson president; Burr became vice president. In 1817 a street in Baltimore became the first to be lighted with gas from America's first gas company. In 1843 Aaron Montgomery Ward, creator of the mail-order business, was born in Chatham, NJ. In 1864 the Confederate vessel H. L. Hunley became the first submarine to engage and sink a warship, the Union's USS Housatonic. In 1865 Columbia, SC, burned as the Confederates evacuated and Union forces moved in. (It's not known which side set the blaze.) In 1924 swimmer Johnny Weissmuller set a world record in the 100-yard freestyle, with a time of 52-2/5 seconds in Miami, FL. In 1933 the Blaine Act, which would repeal Prohibition, passed the US Senate, and was later ratified as the 21st Amendment in December of that same year; also on this day, Newsweek was first published. In 1944 the World War II Battle of Eniwetok Atoll began. US forces won the battle on February 22, 1944. In 1947 the Voice of America began broadcasting to the Soviet Union. In 1964 the Supreme Court ruled that congressional districts within each state had to be roughly equal in population. In 1972 President Nixon departed on his historic trip to China. In 2005 President Bush named John Negroponte, the US ambassador to Iraq, as the government's first national intelligence director; also on this day, Iraq's electoral commission certified the results of the Jan. 30 elections and allocated 140 of 275 National Assembly seats to the United Iraqi Alliance, giving the Shiite-dominated party a majority in the new parliament.

Friday, February 16. 2018

In 1804 US Lieutenant Stephen Decatur led a raid into Tripoli harbor and destroyed the captured American vessel USS Philadelphia, which was in the hands of the Barbary pirates. In 1838 historian, journalist, and novelist Henry Adams was born in Boston. In 1862 during the Civil War, some 14,000 Confederate soldiers surrendered at Fort Donelson, TN. (Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's victory earned him the nickname "Unconditional Surrender Grant.") In 1883 the Ladies Home Journal was published for the first time. In 1914 the first airplane flight between Los Angeles and San Francisco took place. In 1941 10,000 Jews were deported from Vienna, Austria. In 1944 the US Marines destroyed Japanese bases in the Marshall Islands, including Ponape and Truk in the Caroline Islands. In 1945 US paratroopers landed on Corregidor in the Philippines, taking the island ten days later. In 1959 Fidel Castro became premier of Cuba after the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista. In 1996 former California Gov. Edmund G. "Pat" Brown died in Beverly Hills, at age 90. In 2001 the US and Britain staged air strikes against radar stations and air defense command centers in Iraq.

Thursday, February 15. 2018

In 1564 Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa, Italy. In 1764 the city of St. Louis was established. In 1809 farmer, inventor, businessman, and newspaper editor Cyrus McCormick was born in Rockbridge County, VA. In 1820 American suffragist Susan B. Anthony was born in Adams, MA. In 1898 the USS Maine blew up in Havana harbor, killing 260 officers and enlisted men. In 1933 President-elect Franklin Roosevelt escaped an assassination attempt in Miami. Chicago Mayor Anton J. Cermak was shot in the attack and died March 6. In 1941 Duke Ellington made his first recording of the jazz classic, Take the A Train. In 1942 Japanese troops captured Singapore. In 1946 ENIAC (for "Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer"), the first general-purpose electronic computer, was unveiled at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1965 Canada's new maple-leaf flag was unfurled in ceremonies in Ottawa. In 1989 the Soviet Union announced that the last of its troops had left Afghanistan, after more than nine years of military intervention. In 1996 Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin announced he would run for re-election. In 2005 the video-sharing Web site YouTube was founded.

Wednesday, February 14. 2018

In 270 AD St. Valentine was martyred by Roman Emperor Claudius II. In 1778 the American ship Ranger carried the recently adopted Star and Stripes to a foreign port for the first time as it arrived in France. In 1817 Frederick Douglass was born near Easton, MD (this was the date Douglass adopted as his birth date, as there was no definitive record). In 1849 President James Polk had his photograph taken by Matthew Brady in New York City, becoming the first US president to have his picture taken. In 1859 Oregon was admitted to the Union as the 33rd state. In 1876 Alexander Graham Bell applied for his patent for the telephone. In 1891 Union Civil War general William Tecumseh Sherman died at age 70. In 1894 comedian Jack Benny was born Benjamin Kubelsky in Waukegan, IL. In 1895 Oscar Wilde's final play, The Importance of Being Earnest, opened at the St. James' Theatre in London. In 1903 the Department of Commerce and Labor was established. (It was divided into separate departments of Commerce and Labor in 1913.) In 1912 Arizona became the 48th state in the Union. In 1920 the League of Women Voters was founded in Chicago. The first president of the organization was Maude Wood Park. In 1929 Al Capone's hit men lured the members of the Moran gang to a Chicago garage on North Clark Street and murdered them in what is known as "The St. Valentine's Day Massacre." In 1949 Chaim Weizmann was elected as the first president of modern Israel. In 1956 Nikita Khrushchev denounced the policies of Joseph Stalin at the 20th Congress of the Soviet Communist Party. In 1979 Adolph Dubs, the US ambassador to Afghanistan, was kidnapped in Kabul by Muslim extremists and killed in a shootout between his abductors and police. In 1989 the Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa edict calling on Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie for his novel The Satanic Verses; also on this day, the first of the 24 satellites of the Global Positioning System was placed into orbit. In 2005 former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated.

Tuesday, February 13. 2018

In 1542 the fifth wife of England's King Henry VIII, Catherine Howard, was executed for adultery. In 1633 Galileo arrived in Rome for his trial before the inquisition for professing his belief that the Earth revolved around the sun. In 1635 the Boston Public Latin School was established. It was the first public school building in the United States. In 1741 Pennsylvanian Andrew Bradford published the first American magazine, called The American Magazine, or A Monthly View of the Political State of the British Colonies. Bradford introduced his American Magazine just days before Benjamin Franklin founded his periodical called General Magazine in Philadelphia. In 1795 the University of North Carolina became the first US state university to admit students with the arrival of Hinton James, who was the only student on campus for two weeks. In 1883 German composer Richard Wagner died of a heart attack in the Palazzo Vendramin on the Grand Canal, Venice, Italy. In 1892 painter Grant Wood was born in Anamosa, IA. In 1920 the League of Nations recognized the perpetual neutrality of Switzerland. In 1923 Chuck Yeager was born in Myra, WV. In 1935 a jury in Flemington, NJ, found Bruno Richard Hauptmann guilty of first-degree murder in the kidnap-death of the son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh. (Hauptmann was later executed.) In 1945 the Soviet Army captured Budapest, Hungary, from the Germans; also on this day, Allied planes began bombing the German city of Dresden. In 1960 France exploded its first atomic bomb. In 1974 dissident Russian novelist Alexander Solzhenitsyn was expelled from the USSR. In 1984 Konstantin Chernenko was chosen to be general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party's Central Committee, succeeding the late Yuri Andropov. In 1990 at a conference in Ottawa, the US and its European allies forged agreement with the Soviet Union and East Germany on a two-stage formula to reunite Germany. In 2000 Charles M. Schulz's last original Sunday Peanuts comic strip appeared in newspapers. Schulz had died the day before.

Monday, February 12. 2018

In 1541 the city of Santiago, Chile, was founded. In 1554 Lady Jane Grey, who'd claimed the throne of England for nine days, and her husband, Guildford Dudley, were beheaded after being condemned for high treason. In 1733 Savannah, GA, was founded by English colonist James Oglethorpe. In 1809 Abraham Lincoln was born in Hardin (now Larue) County, KY; also on this day, Charles Darwin was born in Shewsbury, England. In 1870 women in the Utah Territory gained the right to vote. In 1893 Omar Bradley, American commander of the US 12th Army Group in Europe, and later the first official Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was born in Clark, MO. In 1909 the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded. In 1912 the last emperor of China Pu Yi abdicated, marking the end of the Qing Dynasty. In 1915 the cornerstone of the Lincoln Memorial was laid in Washington, DC. In 1924 George Gershwin performed his Rhapsody In Blue for the first time in public in front of bandleader Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra; also on this day, President Calvin Coolidge made the first presidential political speech on radio. It originated from New York City and was broadcast on five radio stations, with some five million people tuned in. In 1934 basketball Hall of Famer Bill Russell was born in Monroe, LA. In 1941 Erwin Rommel was made commander of the German Afrika Korps; also on this day, the first injection of penicillin into a human test subject was conducted on a patient who had scratched his face on a rose bush. In 1950 Senator Joseph McCarthy (R-WI) announced that he had a list of 205 communist government employees -- the list underestimated the number according to documents since unearthed after the fall of the Soviet Union; also on this day, Albert Einstein warned against the hydrogen bomb. In 1964The Beatles played two concerts at New York City's Carnegie Hall. In 1999 the Senate acquitted President Clinton of perjury and obstruction of justice. In 2000Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz died in Santa Rosa, CA, at age 77. In 2001 the NEAR spacecraft touched down on Eros, completing the first landing on an asteroid; also on this day, scientists published their first examinations of nearly all the human genetic code.

Sunday, February 11. 2018

In 1531 King Henry VIII was recognized as the supreme head of the Church in England. In 1765 wig makers petitioned King George III of England for financial relief as the male fashion of wearing wigs came to an end. In 1766 the Stamp Act was declared unconstitutional in the state of Virginia. In 1768 a Samuel Adams letter opposing Townshend Act taxes was circulated among the American colonies. In 1790 American Quakers presented a petition to Congress calling for the abolition of slavery. In 1805 Sacajawea, the Shoshoni guide for Lewis and Clark, gave birth to a son, Jean Baptiste. In 1812 Massachusetts Gov. Elbridge Gerry signed a redistricting law favoring his party, the Democratic-Republicans, giving rise to the term "gerrymandering." In 1815 news of the Treaty of Ghent, that ended the War of 1812, finally reached the United States. In 1847 Thomas Alva Edison was born in Milan, OH. In 1858 a French girl, Bernadette Soubirous, claimed for the first time to have seen a vision of the Virgin Mary near Lourdes. In 1861 President-elect Lincoln departed Springfield, IL, for Washington. In 1937 a sit-down strike against General Motors ended, with the company agreeing to recognize the United Automobile Workers Union. In 1945 President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet leader Josef Stalin signed the Yalta Agreement during World War II. In 1953 President Eisenhower refused a clemency appeal for Russian spies Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. In 1964The Beatles performed their first live concert in the US, at the Coliseum in Washington, DC. In 1966 San Francisco Giants Hall of Fame outfielder Willie Mays became the highest-paid player in either league when he signed a two-year contract with the team for a salary of $130,000 a year. In 1975 Margaret Thatcher became the first female leader of a UK political party after she defeated Edward Heath for the Conservative Party leadership. In 1978 China announced the ending of a 10-year ban on 70 renowned classical and modern international writers including Aristotle, Plato, Shakespeare, Honore de Balzac, Jonathon Swift, Victor Hugo, Charles Dickens, and Mark Twain. In 1979 followers of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini seized power in Iran, nine days after the religious leader returned to his home country following 15 years of exile. In 1986 Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky was released by the Soviet Union after nine years of captivity as part of an East-West prisoner exchange. In 1990 Nelson Mandela was freed after 27 years in a South African prison. In 2005 CNN chief news executive Eason Jordan quit amid a furor over remarks he'd made about journalists being targeted by the US military in Iraq.

Saturday, February 10. 2018

In 1763 France ceded Canada to England under the Treaty of Paris, which ended the French and Indian War. In 1775 English writer Charles Lamb was born in London, England. In 1837 Russian poet and novelist Alexander S. Pushkin was killed in a duel at age 37. In 1840 Britain's Queen Victoria married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. In 1846 members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the Mormons, began an exodus to the west from Illinois. In 1890 writer Boris Pasternak was born in Moscow, Russia. In 1893 comedian Jimmy Durante was born in New York City. In 1942 RCA Victor presented Glenn Miller and his Orchestra with a "gold record" for their recording of Chattanooga Choo Choo, which had sold more than 1 million copies. In 1949 Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman opened at the Morocco Theatre in New York City. In 1962 the Soviet Union exchanged American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers for Rudolph Ivanovich Abel, a Soviet spy held by the United States. In 1967 the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, dealing with presidential disability and succession, went into effect. In 1989 Ron Brown was elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee, becoming the first black man to head a major US political party. In 2005 North Korea boasted publicly for the first time that it possessed nuclear weapons; also on this day, playwright Arthur Miller died in Roxbury, CT, at age 89 on the 56th anniversary of the Broadway opening of his Death of a Salesman.

Friday, February 9. 2018

In 1773 ninth President of the US William Henry Harrison was born in Charles City County, VA. In 1775 the English Parliament declared the Massachusetts colony to be in rebellion. In 1797 John Adams won the US's first contested presidential election over Thomas Jefferson, who became vice president. In 1814 future New York Governor Samuel Tilden, the Democratic Party's nominee for president in 1876 (though he won more than 50% of the vote that year, he lost the election to Rutherford B. Hayes) was born in New Lebanon, NY. In 1825 in a disputed election, John Quincy Adams was elected the 6th President of the US in the House of Representatives. In 1861 the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States of America elected Jefferson Davis as its president. In 1870 the US Weather Bureau was established. In 1909 the first US federal legislation prohibiting narcotics was enacted -- against opium. In 1914 baseball owner and famed promoter Bill Veeck was born in Chicago, IL. In 1933 the Oxford Union, Oxford University's debating society, endorsed a motion stating, "that this House will in no circumstances fight for its King and Country," by a vote of 275-153; this pacifist stand was widely denounced by Britons. In 1941 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, in his classic war-time speech to the United States of America, said, "Put your confidence in us, give us the tools and we will finish the job." In 1942 the US Joint Chiefs of Staff held its first formal meeting to coordinate military strategy during World War II; also on this day, singer and songwriter Carole King was born in Brooklyn, NY. In 1943 the battle of Guadalcanal in the southwest Pacific ended with an American victory over the Japanese. In 1950 in a speech in Wheeling, WV, Sen. Joseph McCarthy, R-WI, charged that the State Department was riddled with Communists. In 1964The Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. In 1969 the Boeing 747-100 jumbo jet made its first commercial flight. In 1971 the Apollo 14 spacecraft returned to Earth after man's third landing on the moon. In 1975 the Russian Soyuz 17 returned to Earth. In 1984 Soviet leader Yuri V. Andropov died at age 69, less than 15 months after succeeding Leonid Brezhnev; he was succeeded by Konstantin U. Chernenko, who himself died in March 1985 at age 73. In 1990 the Galileo satellite flew by Venus.

Thursday, February 8. 2018

In 1587 Mary, Queen of Scots, was beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle in England after she was implicated in a plot to murder her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I. In 1693 a charter was granted for the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA. In 1820 Union general William Tecumseh Sherman was born in Lancaster, OH. In 1828 science fiction writer Jules Verne was born in Nantes, France. In 1851 novelist and short story writer Kate Chopin was born in St. Louis, MO. In 1861 the southern states that had seceded from the Union agreed to set up the Confederate States of America. In 1896 the Western Conference was formed by representatives of Midwestern universities. The group changed its name to the Big 10 Conference. In 1904 the Russo-Japanese War, a conflict over control of Manchuria and Korea began when Japanese forces attacked Port Arthur. In 1910 William D. Boyce of Chicago, IL, incorporated the Boy Scouts of America. In 1915 D.W. Griffith's groundbreaking as well as controversial silent movie (many would say racist) epic about the Civil War, The Birth of a Nation, premiered in Los Angeles. In 1922 President Warren Harding had a radio installed in the White House. In 1926 the Walt Disney Studio was formed. In 1942 Congress advised Franklin D. Roosevelt that Americans of Japanese descent should be interned. In 1969 the last issue of the Saturday Evening Post was published; the magazine started in 1821. In 1973 Senate leaders named seven members of a select committee to investigate the Watergate scandal, including the chairman, Sam J. Ervin Jr., (D-NC). In 1974 the three-man crew of the Skylab space station returned to Earth after spending 84 days in space. In 1996 in a ceremony at the Library of Congress, President Clinton signed legislation revamping the telecommunications industry, saying it would "bring the future to our doorstep."

Wednesday, February 7. 2018

In 1478 English lawyer, writer, and politician Sir Thomas More was born in London. In 1804 manufacturer John Deere was born in Rutland, Vermont. In 1812 novelist Charles Dickens was born in Hampshire, England; also on this day a massive earthquake struck the Midwest along the New Madrid fault line. The quake, the last in a series of four beginning the preceding December, was so strong it was felt all the way to the East coast and changed the course of Mississippi River in many places. In 1817 Frederick Douglass was born into slavery in Talbot County, MD. In 1867 writer Laura Ingalls Wilder was born in Pepin, WI. In 1883 jazz great James Hubert "Eubie" Blake was born in Baltimore, MD. In 1885 writer Sinclair Lewis was born in Sauk Centre, MN. In 1904 a fire began in Baltimore that raged for about 30 hours and destroyed more than 1,500 buildings. In 1906 Pu Yi, the last emperor of China, was born in Beijing. In 1940 Walt Disney's Pinocchio premiered. In 1944 the Germans launched a WWII counteroffensive at Anzio, Italy. In 1945 General Douglas MacArthur returned to Manila, Philippines. In 1949 the New York Yankees' Joe DiMaggio became the first baseball player to earn $100,000 a year. In 1958 the Brooklyn Dodgers' move to Los Angeles became official. In 1964 more than 3,000 fans jammed New York's Kennedy Airport to greet The Beatles as they arrived for their first US visit (including an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show); also on this day, world heavyweight champion Cassius Clay changed his name to Muhammad Ali. In 1973 the US Senate voted to set up a committee to investigate the break-in at the Democratic National Headquarters at the Watergate complex. In 1974 Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles opened in movie theaters. In 1980 the first Sony Walkman went on sale. In 1984 space shuttle astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart went on the first untethered space walk. In 1999 Jordan's King Hussein died of cancer at age 63; he was succeeded by his eldest son, Abdullah.

Tuesday, February 6. 2018

In 1564 playwright Christopher Marlowe was born in Canterbury, England. In 1756 Aaron Burr was born in Newark, NJ. In 1693 a charter was granted to the College of William and Mary, in Williamsburg, VA. In 1778 France and America signed the Treaty of Amity and Commerce and the Treaty of Alliance in Paris -- the first American treaty. In 1788 Massachusetts became the sixth state to ratify the US Constitution. In 1895 baseball great Babe Ruth was born in Baltimore, MD. In 1899 the Treaty of Paris was ratified by one vote in the US Senate, ending the Spanish-American War. In 1911 40th president of the US Ronald Reagan was born in Tampico, IL. In 1929 Germany accepted the Kellogg-Briand pact, which outlawed war. In 1935 the board game Monopoly first went on sale. In 1939 the Spanish government fled to France. In 1943 General Dwight D. Eisenhower was appointed commander-in-chief of the Allied Expeditionary Forces in North Africa; also on this day Frank Sinatra made his debut as vocalist on radio's Your Hit Parade. In 1952 Elizabeth II of England becomes Queen upon the death of her father King George VI. In 1958 George Harrison joined a Liverpool group called The Quarrymen. In 1959 Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments filed the first patent for an integrated circuit. In 1976 jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi died of a heart attack at age 47. In 1981 Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison teamed up once again to record a musical tribute to John Lennon. In 1990 West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl proposed unifying the currencies of East and West Germany. In 1995 the US House approved the line-item veto by a vote of 294-134.

Monday, February 5. 2018

In 1881 Phoenix was incorporated. In 1914 writer William Burroughs was born in St Louis, MO. In 1917 Mexico's constitution was adopted. In 1922Reader's Digest magazine was first published. In 1934 Baseball Hall of Famer and real all-time home-run champ Hank Aaron was born in Mobile, AL. In 1937 President Franklin Roosevelt attempted to "pack" the Supreme Court by increasing the number of justices. In 1952 the first "Don't Walk" sign was installed in New York City. In 1967 the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour premiered on CBS. In 1971 the Apollo 14 Lunar Module Antares, the third US manned Moon expedition, landed on the Moon with Alan B. Shepard, Jr., commander; Stuart A. Roosa, command module pilot; and Edgar D. Mitchell, lunar module pilot. Shepard and Mitchell walked on the Moon for four hours. In 1990 Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev proposed the Communist Party give up its monopoly on power in the Soviet Union. Two days later, the party's Central Committee agreed. In 2001 four disciples of Osama bin Laden went on trial in New York for the 1998 bombings of two US embassies in Africa. (The four were convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole.) In 2003 US Secretary of State Colin Powell presented evidence to the UN concerning Iraq's material breach of UN Resolution 1441.

Sunday, February 4. 2018

In 1783 Britain declared a formal cessation of hostilities with its former colonies, the United States of America. In 1789 General George Washington was unanimously elected the first president of the United States by all 69 presidential electors casting their votes. In 1801 John Marshall was sworn in as chief justice of the United States. In 1822 free American blacks settled Liberia, West Africa and founded Monrovia, the colony's capital city, named in honor of President James Monroe. In 1861 delegates from six southern states met in Montgomery, AL, to form the Confederate States of America. In 1904 the Russo-Japanese War began when Japan attacked Port Arthur. In 1938 Adolf Hitler became Germany's war minister and Joachim von Ribbentrop took over foreign affairs; also on this day, Thornton Wilder's play Our Town, opened in New York City. In 1945 Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin met at Yalta to discuss plans for the defeat of the Axis powers and to decide on the post-war future. In 1957 Smith-Corona began selling portable electric typewriters -- weighing 19 pounds. In 1974 Patricia Hearst was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army from her apartment in Berkeley, CA; she later joined her kidnappers in an armed robbery. In 1976 more than 22,000 people died when a severe earthquake struck Guatemala and Honduras.

Saturday, February 3. 2018

In 1468 inventor of the printing press Johann Gutenberg died at age 67. In 1690 the first paper money in America was issued by the Massachusetts colony. The currency was used to pay soldiers that were fighting in the war against Quebec. In 1783 Spain recognized the independence of the United States. In 1787 Shays' Rebellion was defeated, ending an uprising that would prompt negotiations that would result in the drafting of the Constitution of the United States. In 1809 the territory of Illinois was created; also on this day, composer Felix Mendelssohn was born in Hamburg, Germany. In 1811 newspaper editor and publisher Horace Greeley was born in Amherst, NY. In 1836 the Whig Party held its first national convention, in Albany, NY. In 1870 the 15th Amendment, granting blacks the right to vote, was ratified. In 1894 painter Norman Rockwell was born in New York City. In 1907 writer James Michener was born in New York City. In 1913 the Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution ratified, authorizing the federal income tax. In 1916 Canada's original Parliament Buildings, in Ottawa, burned down. In 1917 the US broke off diplomatic relations with Germany, which had announced a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare. In 1924 former President Woodrow Wilson died in Washington, DC, at age 67. In 1930 the chief justice of the United States, William Howard Taft, resigned for health reasons. In 1941 the Nazis forcibly restored Pierre Laval to office in occupied Vichy, France. In 1943 during World War II, the US transport ship Dorchester, which was carrying troops to Greenland, sank after being hit by a torpedo. (Four Army chaplains gave their life belts to four other men, and went down with the ship.) In 1945 the Soviet Union agreed to enter World War II against Japan. In 1959 a plane crash near Clear Lake, IA, claimed the lives of rock 'n roll stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson. In 1966 the first rocket-assisted controlled landing on the Moon was made by the Soviet space vehicle Luna IX. In 1969 the Palestine National Congress appointed Yasser Arafat head of the Palestine Liberation Organization. In 1994 the space shuttle Discovery lifted off, carrying Sergei Krikalev, the first Russian cosmonaut to fly aboard a US spacecraft. In 1995 the space shuttle Discovery blasted off with a woman, Air Force Lt. Colonel Eileen Collins, in the pilot's seat for the first time in NASA history.